Today a land scam my father bought into several decades ago *may* have finally come to a close. This was the plan, and my hapless dad bought in. The guy who started it (“effin’ shyster” according to my mom) is dead. His wife is dead. Probably a third of the original participants, like my dad, are dead. There is precious little about this “experimental community” online. A cursory search reveals this: https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-54785943.html and this: https://collapseofcivilization.wordpress.com/tag/cerro-gordo/

I will never forget when, literally on his deathbed, my dad asked: “Son, do you want the property in Oregon?” And I said “the what?” He believed he owned a plot where one day a modest cabin might sit. In reality, he held a percent share of unbuildable land tied up in leaseback agreements ostensibly intended to offset the future purchase of a buildable homesite that never came to be. I attended one of the annual pancake breakfasts and was astonished by the delusional behavior of the core attendees. I left with a profound sense of sadness for my dad.

Thus, years later, my father’s flirtation with the notion of retiring to a forest idyll in Oregon comes to a close in the form of a check (no, nowhere near enough to retire on) to me, heir to the lost Oregon dream.